Animal Protection Program

Henry Beston, American writer-naturalist, wrote:“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.”

Since its establishment, The Summerlee Foundation has promoted a new ethic towards our fellow beings through its national and international grantmaking programs supporting rescue, research, rehabilitation, and advocacy. Our grants have assisted a wide variety of programs, including second chances for companion animals, protection of wild carnivores, sanctuary and refuge, and endangered species protection and advocacy. While many of these projects have been controversial, all have been critically important. Collectively, we have alleviated fear, pain and suffering in countless animals’ lives, advanced and expanded the rights of all non-human animals, defended the laws that protect them, and created new policies to address new grievances against them. We have rescued, re-homed, relocated, and rehabilitated these animals.

And while we can celebrate our many successes, we must also confront the emerging and expanding threats to our most vulnerable animal populations: climate change, persecution and exploitation on a global scale, wildlife extinction and disease, companion animal abandonment, and intentional cruelty and torture. The challenges are serious and many.

By working together, creatively and opportunistically, with vision and with wisdom, we will continue to protect and give sanctuary and refuge to the underserved, the voiceless, the persecuted, and the helpless.

The Summerlee Foundation is enormously proud of the dedication and achievements of its grantseekers and congratulates all of you for your vision, your commitment, and your ability to make a difference in the lives of so many.